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WOOKEY HOLE CAVE DRIED UP BY DROUGHT HISTORICAL INTEREST
(British Official Wireless.)
Bee. 10 a.m
RUGBY, jail. 3
The deficiency in rainfall over a large part of Britain, prolonged for over nine consecutive months, has led to the drying up of springs and a fall of water levels, which, in many parts of the country, are causing inconvenience and even anxiety. 'The great cities are not ,at present seriously affected by the drought, but in small towns it lias become necessary to curtail slightly the supply of water.
The drought brought the River Axe, which flows through Wookey Hole, a cave 500 ft. below the Mendip hills, to a low level never before known. Excavators and archaeologists are hoping to explore caverns which have never before 'been entered by civilised man. The cave, about 3000 years ago, was the home of a tribe whose
pottery and stone implements were unearthed, helping archieolagists to reconstruct the mode of living in the distant past.
Wookey Hole, a cave near Wells, in .Somerset, is situated in dolomitic conglomerate, and for many years has been of profound interest to scientists. When discovered it was filled with debris, in which were found bones smashed and splintered and scored with tooth-marks of the hyoena, whose remains largely predominated. The cave appears to have been a hvrena’s den. Amongst other species represented were horse, rhinoceros, deer, bear, ox, mammoth, lion, fox, wolf, and lemming. Man’s 'presence was first shown by the occurrence of palicolithic flint implements. In the Iron Age its inhabitants, apparently cannibals, shared the culture of the Glastonbury lake villages. Roman coins were also found.
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Bibliographic details
Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18287, 4 January 1934, Page 5
Word Count
273CHANCE FOR EXPLORERS Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18287, 4 January 1934, Page 5
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